Missing Titan sub: Race against time to find vessel
Finding the Titan and retrieving the vessel, who can travel to depths very few other submersibles can, are two major challenges rescue teams face.
Search and rescue teams from all over the world are joining forces to find a submersible carrying five people that went missing during an expedition to view the sunken Titanic in the Atlantic Ocean.
OceanGate Expeditions’ Titan is said to have 96 hours of oxygen supply, giving the vessel’s occupants a chance at survival until Thursday morning.
CNN reported that British businessman Hamish Harding, French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet, Pakistani billionaire Shahzada Dawood and his son Sulaiman Dawood and OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush were onboard the Titan when it went missing.
The eight-day trip, with a price tag of around R4.6m per person, started on Sunday, with a boat ride from St Johns in Newfoundland, Canada, to near where the Titanic wreckage lies. The submersible started its descent at 04:00 on Sunday and lost contact with the support ship around one hour and 45 minutes later, just 15 minutes before it was supposed to reach the wreck.
The search, including ships scanning the ocean surface and an underwater sonar search by aircraft, began later that day. Yesterday, the US Coast Guard said a Canadian aircraft detected underwater noises in the search area.
US and Canadian coast guards and navies and OceanGate are co-ordinating the search.
Finding the Titan is the first challenge. The second challenge will be to retrieve the vessel if it is still submerged, as very few vessels can travel to the depth that the Titan can.
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